Aetiology, epidemiology, and social impact - Arthritis calling for surgical treatment - aetiology and epidemiology

Abstract

The main contribution of surgery in the treatment of arthritis is to improve the function of damaged joints. Work, independence, and self-care are probably most in jeopardy, and for these the critical properties are hand function and the ability to walk. There are two principal classes of disorder leading to articular damage. Inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis affect only subpopulations. Degenerative changes or osteoarthrosis carry names that suggest universal susceptibility, but when attention is directed to individual joints this disorder can also be seen to be restricted only to subpopulations. Thus those people developing clinically significant hip disease, for instance, do not necessarily manifest osteoarthrosis elsewhere. As long as a condition is not ubiquitous, contained optimism for a preventive potential is justified. However, there are many difficulties in the way of attaining prevention; in any particular joint, be it hip or knee or hand, the relative importance of different causes varies, and much remains to be elucidated.